


The Girly Robot

by Bobcatmoran



Series: A Glimpse of the Future [1]
Category: Rockman X | Mega Man X, Rockman | Mega Man - All Media Types, Rockman | Mega Man Classic
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-01-22
Updated: 2005-01-22
Packaged: 2017-12-27 06:20:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/975463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bobcatmoran/pseuds/Bobcatmoran
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Forte discovers what Wily's been working on in the off-limits lab. He's not pleased.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Girly Robot

Finally. The old man was _finally_ asleep, and the lab was empty. Normally he'd been free to come and go as he pleased, but this room had been locked, off limits to any robot for months now. Needless to say, Forte had been not-so-patiently waiting for an opportunity to sneak in and see what the doctor was working on. Blasting the door off its hinges would have been the easiest way of getting access, but that would have been noisy, attracting too much attention. He wanted to get a look at whatever was in there by himself. Well, almost by himself, since Gospel had insisted on coming along.

Forte opened up a panel on his chest and pulled out a cord, which he plugged into the access port on the door's lock. As quickly as he could, he scrolled through the possible passcodes. A minute passed. Two minutes. He really hoped that no one would come down the hall and ask what he was doing. Gospel paced in front of the door, tail twitching, with the occasional glare shot in Forte's direction, as if to ask, "What's taking you so long?"

There was a click as the heavy metal door unlocked. "Got it," Forte said. He smiled as he opened the door.

Forte closed the door after Gospel came in, and then carefully picked his way through the maze of cables on the floor, heading towards the lab table. There was definitely something on it. It looked like another robot, but even with his optic sensors adjusted for maximum light sensitivity he couldn't make it out clearly. "Gospel," he said, looking back towards the entrance, where the robotic wolf was sniffing around a pile of armor. "Hey, Gospel, hit the lights, will ya?" Gospel looked around, as though expecting to find a lightbulb on the floor. "On the wall, by the door," Forte instructed. "No, other side. Yeah, there you g — ow!" he yelled, as the lights came on, momentarily overloading his optics.

"Growf?" Gospel inquired.

"'m fine," Forte said, blinking. "Just wasn't expecting you to get the lights on that quick." He looked around the room. "Geez, what a dump." There was the pile of red and white armor that Gospel had been poking around by the door, a stack of blueprints precariously balanced on two coffee mugs over by the computer terminals, a jumble of wires and chipboards in a corner, a mound of empty cardboard boxes, and cables running everywhere. In the center of it all was a lab table with a half-completed robot on it.

He bent over to take a closer look at the robot's face. He poked it a couple times, then propped open an eyelid. "Hey, Gospel, check this out. This robot's got blue eyes." Gospel reared up on its hind legs, propping its front paws on the lab table to see what Forte was talking about. "See? Now, why'd the old man go and do something like that? Blue eyes is like what Rockman and that dumb girl robot have."

"Bwowr?"

"I dunno, maybe Blues, too. I've never seen his eyes, come to think of it. Maybe he doesn't have any, and that's why he wears those stupid sunglasses all the time. If you ask me, I think red eyes are the way to go."

Gospel made an odd whuffing noise, and then got down from the lab table.

Forte closed the robot's eyelid, and stared at the robot, frowning. It was really lifelike. If it weren't for the mass of cables coming out of its stomach and the fact that from the waist down it was still just a metal skeleton, he'd have sworn that Wily had a human lying on his lab table. It even had fingernails.

There was one element about the robot that struck Forte as really weird (well, besides its creepy resemblance to a human). "What's with the hair?" he asked aloud, eyeing the long blond mass which drooped over the back edge of the lab table, pooling slightly on the floor. "It's like a girl or something." But Forte was pretty sure that this new robot was supposed to be male. It looked nearly complete from the waist up, and it didn't seem to have any of those weird chest bumps that females had. He kicked the mass of hair, watching as it limply settled back into place. "Stupid robot will probably trip over it."

Turning from the robot, Forte looked at the computer terminals that lined one wall of the lab. One of them was still on, displaying a long string of computer code. Forte picked his way through the mess on the floor to the terminal. He tapped a few keys, frowned, then tapped a few more. "A computer virus? What's he writing a virus for?" Looking closer, it seemed like Wily intended this virus to infect robots. But why would he …

Gospel barked from the pile of armor. "What?" Forte said irritably. Gospel barked again, nudging a chest plate out from the pile. A huge grin spread across Forte's face. He tripped over a few cables, kicking them out of his way as he half-ran over to pick it up. He looked at the two green jewels in the chest plate, and then back at the unfinished robot. "So," he said, looking down at Gospel, "maybe Wily meant it to be a girl after all." Tossing the chest plate aside, Forte grabbed a red and white boot with gold trim. He held it up against his leg. Boy, that new robot was going to be tall — probably almost two meters, which would make it at least a head taller than Forte, even with his helmet fins. Forte scrunched up his face in disgust. He didn't like Wily making robots who were taller than him, even if they were inferior.

Speaking of inferior robots, what kind of weapons was Wily giving this thing? Forte made his way back to the computer terminal and snatched up the blueprints. He sat down in a nearby chair and propped his feet up on the desk next to the keyboard. Leafing through the blueprints, it looked like this was going to be no ordinary robot master. It didn't seem to have any sort of special weapon. No Freeze Cracker or Wild Coil, just a regular plasma buster was its only weapon. Forte got some satisfaction out of noticing that this robot wouldn't be able to charge its buster, nor would it be able to switch over to rapid-fire mode. But, looking at the plasma relays, it might not need to charge up. It looked like the robot's uncharged plasma shots would be roughly as powerful as Forte's fully charged shots.

He looked at the rest of the specifications. A top-of-the-line Hayatom voice synthesizer, micro-fusion fuel tank, highly advanced eye camera, titanium alloy skin, dash system … this couldn't be just another robot master. Wily would never put this much effort into one of those. In fact, the only other robot Forte knew of that the old man had worked this hard on was … himself. Crap, was this thing going to be his replacement?

It couldn't be. Why would Wily be replacing him, Forte, clearly the best thing the old man had ever built? After all, no other robot had even come close to defeating Rockman, and he was sure that their next encounter would be the last one for the blue shrimp. There wasn't any conceivable reason for getting rid of Forte.

But on the other hand, the old guy was kind of nuts. Who knew what went through his head? Forte looked up at the terminal, at the code for the computer virus. A virus that infected robots — was that how Wily was planning to get rid of him? Swinging his feet back down onto the floor, Forte walked back over to the robot. Well, he couldn't be replaced if the replacement wasn't finished now, could he?

Recalling some of the diagrams on the blueprints, Forte reached around to the back of the robot's head, feeling for a hidden switch. With a soft "pop," a panel on the robot's chest opened. Forte gave the chipboard inside an appraising look, before prying loose a few memory chips, strategically rewiring some transistors, and moving around resistors. "There. That oughta keep Wily busy until I can come back with my buster and properly finish the job." He closed up the panel, pulled a few cables loose and replugged them into the wrong sockets for good measure, then sauntered out of the lab, with Gospel tagging along at his heels.


End file.
